Sunday, December 23, 2012

Christmas Crackers!

These are super fun and QUICK!

I've seen them in stores with cheap little dollar store toys in them and decided I wanted to make my own. The idea is that you can grab it on both ends and pull to have it crack apart and spill out the prize/present. Super fun idea for kids. I was even thinking this would be awesome filled with confetti for New Years!

I used the paper towel roll to measure the paper before cutting, you need about 1/2 inch of overlapping paper to glue. Cut your paper, put tape along one end, roll the other end around the paper towel roll until you have it glued together (don't wrap too tight, so it's easier to pull off the roll later) and then I put a couple hair elastics on it and gave it a bit to dry.
When you are ready to put the prizes in and tie the ends it helps to slide the paper towel roll to one side to help you bend and twist the end of the paper where you want (so it doesn't smash down the whole thing). So I would slide it one way bend and twist, open that up, slide it the other way and then bend and twist that end, tie it off with ribbon or twine, remove the paper roll, add prizes and tie the other end. FINISHED!
I'm gifting mine to the sweet little kids I babysit, so I added tags to mine. I just cut rectangles from leftover Party at the Pole paper I used on layouts, added a sticker or die-cut, stamped a to/from and inked the edges. Punch a hole in one end and tie them around the crackers.